In recent years, the use of Universal Serial Bus (USB) technologies has blossomed in many different portable electronic consumer devices such as laptops, tablets, iPod® devices, cell phones, smart phones, smart watches, handheld game consoles, portable media players, digital cameras and DVD players, and other portable or mobile devices including flameless lighters. These devices require electricity to power them and, typically, these devices are provided with an internal rechargeable battery that provides the required operative voltage and current. USB cables can be used to facilitate charging the battery within the portable consumer electronic devices from external power sources, as well as to transport data between devices.
Devices for recharging the internal rechargeable batteries of such portable electronic consumer devices include wall chargers, disposable or rechargeable battery chargers, power banks, fuel cell chargers, wind powered chargers and solar powered chargers. However, each of these battery recharging systems includes multiple components and have certain drawbacks.
For instance, a wall charger typically includes a plug for a wall socket, an AC-DC converter, and a cable with a USB plug for plugging into the USB port of the target mobile device that requires recharging. Thus, the wall charger converts AC voltage from a wall socket to DC voltage that is suitable for powering a mobile device and/or recharging the mobile device. The main draw backs with a wall charger are that one must have access to an AC wall socket to recharge and that during the recharge the consumer electronic device is tethered to the wall losing its mobility.
Recharging systems that have greater plug independence include disposable or rechargeable battery charging systems, power bank charging systems and fuel cell charging systems. Such charging systems may be characterized as “depleting power sources” because they typically are provided with a maximum fuel amount or electrical energy charge that is transferred to the batteries being recharged. Batteries in a battery charging system may not hold sufficient power to fully charge a smart phone or a computer tablet, and have relatively short shelf lives. Power bank modules need to be recharged before they can recharge mobile devices. A fuel cell charging system may recharge mobile electronic devices with a USB cable; however, fuel cell systems require fuels such as hydrogen or methanol to convert to electricity. Fuel cell systems are improvements over chargers that require fresh batteries and chargers that should be charged themselves before being useable, because fuel cells are reusable and only need fresh fuels. Examples of fuel cell chargers include but are not limited to U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,642,742, 9,023,545 and 9,276,271, and U.S. published patent application Nos. US 2014/0272647, which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.
However, there is a need for a “smart” or “universal” USB charging system that can reside within an electronic device that can analyze the voltage of various voltage sources, such as wall chargers, battery chargers, power bank chargers, and fuel cell chargers, including the electronic device's own internal power source or battery, and that can determine which type of voltage source is supplying the recharging voltage, and then transforming the recharging voltage, as required, to meet the operative energy needs of electronic devices.